Who We Are

BUILT BY
A FOUNDER
FOR FOUNDERS.

Redline was started in 2008 by a serial entrepreneur who'd already built and sold businesses before turning 25. That operator's mindset — obsessed with efficiency, outcome, and return — is baked into how we work.

Justin Lugbill
Founder & CEO — Redline Digital Marketing

20-year digital marketing veteran. Paid media specialist. 3x business founder. Justin's career spans agency leadership, in-house directorship, fractional CMO engagements, and entrepreneurial ventures — giving him a rare cross-functional view of how marketing connects to revenue, ops, and growth capital.

Our Philosophy
WHY WE
EXIST

Most agencies optimize for impressions. We optimize for outcomes. There's a fundamental difference in how those two postures shape every decision — from which channels to invest in, to how you report results to a board.

Justin founded Redline after seeing the same problem across the companies he'd built and advised: marketing spend was largely invisible to the rest of the business. Campaigns ran, leads came in, but nobody could honestly answer the question: what's actually working, and why?

Redline was built to answer that question — with infrastructure, data, and the operational discipline that most agencies simply don't have.

01
Revenue Over Vanity

Every engagement starts by defining what winning looks like in dollar terms — not clicks, not impressions, not reach. We measure what matters to your business, not what's easy to report.

02
Infrastructure Before Campaigns

If your tracking is broken, your attribution is fiction. We fix the measurement foundation before we touch spend — because bad data leads to bad decisions, no matter how good the creative is.

03
Operator Mentality

We think like founders and CFOs, not just marketers. That means we understand the pressure of burn rate, the stakes of a fundraise, and the difference between a vanity metric and a KPI your investors care about.

04
Embedded, Not Outsourced

Our model is integration, not delegation. We blend into your team, work in your systems, and show up in the conversations that matter — not just monthly reporting calls.

Justin's Background
20 YEARS
IN THE ARENA
2005
Origin
Christian Books & Bibles
Founder

Launched first e-commerce business as an undergrad. Built, operated, and eventually sold — before turning 25. One of three businesses Justin founded in the first chapter of his career, driven by an entrepreneurial family background spanning PR and international manufacturing.

First Exit
2009
Education
Indiana University
BA in Marketing

Formal foundation in marketing strategy, analytics, and consumer behavior — earned while already running businesses and building real-world expertise in parallel.

2010
Agency
Redline Digital
Founder & Owner

Founded Redline to help businesses connect marketing investment to measurable outcomes. Grew the practice around paid media, analytics, and full-funnel performance strategy — assembling a global network of specialists who embed directly into client teams.

Currently Active
2012
Fractional
Yellow7 / Southwest Media Group
Director of Search Engine Marketing

Led paid search strategy across national accounts in a high-growth agency environment. Developed deep expertise in performance optimization, audience targeting, and cross-channel attribution during the formative years of programmatic advertising.

2013
Consultancy
Closed Loop, Inc.
Digital Marketing Consultant → VP

Progressed from senior consultant to VP of Digital Marketing — advising data-driven B2B and enterprise clients on paid media efficiency, CRM integration, and marketing attribution. Closed Loop was a pioneer in analytics-first marketing, shaping Justin's infrastructure-before-campaigns philosophy.

2019
Fractional
The Well Advertising, Inc.
VP, Digital Media (Fractional)

Served as fractional VP of Digital Media, providing executive-level paid media and analytics leadership without the full-time overhead. Demonstrated the embedded, senior-operator model that Redline now delivers to its own clients.

2021
Co-Founder
Lugbill Designs
Co-Founder

Co-founded a Chicago-based interior design and remodeling firm alongside his wife — applying the same data-driven growth and marketing infrastructure thinking to a service business. Lugbill Designs has grown to serve clients across Chicago and the North Shore with over 16 years of combined expertise.

Active Venture
The Team Behind the Work
EVERY RESOURCE
YOU'LL EVER NEED.

Two decades of deliberate relationship-building have produced something most agencies can't replicate: a global bench of verified specialists who are already proven, already vetted, and ready to deploy.

Redline operates as a lean, founder-led practice — which means your budget goes to output, not overhead. But lean doesn't mean limited. Behind every engagement is a curated network of world-class specialists assembled over 20 years across every discipline digital marketing and technology touches.

When your project needs a server-side GTM architect, a Salesforce integration developer, a creative director, a CTV media buyer, or a data engineer who can wire BigQuery to Looker Studio — we have that person. They're not sourced from a job board. They're people Justin has worked alongside, evaluated in real engagements, and trusted with client work.

This model gives you enterprise-grade capability without the enterprise-grade invoice. And because specialists are brought in by scope, you're never paying retainer fees for capabilities you don't currently need.

Paid Media & Distribution
Paid Search Specialists Paid Social Buyers CTV / Programmatic Traders Amazon & Retail Media Affiliate & Partnership
Analytics & Intelligence
Data Engineers BI Dashboard Developers Attribution Modelers GA4 & GTM Architects Supermetrics Integrators
Technology & Infrastructure
CRM Developers Marketing Automation Engineers Server-Side Tracking Specialists Web & App Developers Systems Integration Architects
Creative & Content
Creative Directors Copywriters & Strategists Video & Motion Producers UX & Conversion Designers SEO & AEO Specialists
How We're Different
THE REDLINE
DIFFERENCE
01
Founder-Led

Justin is in your business — not a junior account manager. You get two decades of senior experience, not a hand-off to someone who learned your account last Tuesday.

02
Operator's Lens

We've built businesses, managed burn, and helped companies prepare for funding rounds. We understand the business context behind every campaign decision.

03
Infrastructure First

Before we run a single ad, we audit your tracking, attribution, and CRM. Most agencies skip this step. It's why most agencies can't explain their results.

04
No Filler Overhead

We're a lean, expert team — not a bloated agency with layers of account management. Your budget goes to work, not to internal overhead and middle-management.

LET'S WORK
TOGETHER.

If you want a senior operator in your corner — someone who's been on both sides of the table — let's start with a conversation about where you are and where you're trying to go.

Call Justin directly
773-417-6351 Start the Conversation